Our Final Push: ACTA Vote In Ten Days, Mail The European Parliament

Ten days from today, on July 4, the European Parliament will vote on ACTA. This is the end-of-level boss; this is where ACTA lives or dies. We have won in five out of five committees – it is time for one huge final push.

Every Member of European Parliament (MEP) and assistant I have spoken to have said the same thing – the calls and mails from ordinary, concerned citizens have made all the difference. This is not obvious when looking from the outside, but as I walked around in the European Parliament last week, that impression was stronger than I had ever anticipated.

As the final vote approaches, scheduled for July 4, it is easy to let your guard down. But this is when all the trickery happens. The battle of ACTA is not over: it will be over in ten days, but not before.

It can be hard to know what to write to a MEP to make your voice heard. Believe it or not, they are people like you and me, and so, they react like you and me would to mails they receive. You don’t have to be a legal political expert to voice your concern: to the contrary, writing exactly what you feel is often the most effective way to come across.

Of course, “exactly what you feel” can sometimes be counterproductive. We need to remember that we are intruding into somebody else’s job, even if that job is to represent us. Anything aggressive or steamventing will be directly counterproductive, and threats are completely off the table. To the contrary, these people want to do a good job. Take the opportunity to help them be the best MEP they can be.

Europarl has voted, don’t mail
The European Parliament has voted, and defeated ACTA by a crushing vote of 478 to 39. See more in this post. This was all thanks to the activists – people like you. In other words, don’t send any more mails asking them how to vote. You could mail Parliament to thank them for rejecting ACTA. Or you could send flowers to thank them.

It is time to mail the entire parliament. I have set up a mail alias that resolves to all MEPs: [email protected]. As before, if you prefer mailing them one by one, a mailto link for that is here. Now remember, this will be sent to over 750 legislators. A personal mail describing how you feel and what you think about ACTA is the most effective way, and I would really encourage you to do that rather than use the sample letters straight off. Some MEPs even think that a lot of identical letters arriving means that an automated Denial-of-Service attack is in progress, rather than individual citizens voicing their concerns (hence the P.S. in these sample letters).

Send a mail now.

You can – and should – mail the MEPs even if you don’t live in the European Union. This is a global matter.

If you live in Europe, I suggest you send something like this to all MEPs:

TITLE: Please reject the ACTA treaty in plenary

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

As a citizen of Europe, I urge you to reject the ACTA treaty in the plenary session on July 2-5.

It is a treaty designed to curtail Europe’s civil liberties and our European sovereignty to benefit American corporations and foreign special interests. It is designed to lock out any and all necessary reforms of the copyright and patent structures to benefit European culture and innovation. It is designed in bad faith, in secret, to prevent the next generation of entrepreneurs from displacing the current kings of the hill with better products and services.

Europe should strive for being competitive, not for safeguarding old structures that are already obsolete, and we should be proud of our Enlightenment heritage of respecting civil liberties – no matter if they are exercised on- or offline.

Let the scheduled date of the vote, July 4, be a date when we celebrate Europe’s political independence from American special interests. We need to feel and establish that independence – and that dignity.

Sincerely,[your name][your country]

P.S.: I have understood that some MEPs have voiced concerns that mails like this one would be part of an automated process, and even regarded it as a form of attack, in that sense. I want to underscore that this mail is not part of an automated process. I may be using a sample letter to voice my concerns, but the concerns are no less real just because I paste somebody else’s words for my concerns into my own e-mail program.

I am not an attack – I am a European voter, pleading for my representatives to represent me against US businesses. (For the technically inclined, the mail headers will show that the identical copies you may have received of this sample letter were all sent manually, one by one, by different people.)

If you live in the United States, a slightly different message would be appropriate, tailored to the fact that it is the US special interests who are pushing this treaty, rigging the game in the world just like they have been rigging it inside the United States.

Again, remember, this is just an example. Rewrite or adapt to your words and liking.

TITLE: Please reject the ACTA treaty

Honored Member of the European Parliament,

I am a citizen of the United States of America. Trade representatives of my country have been pushing a treaty for so-called free trade and anti-counterfeiting across the world, including onto Europe. This ACTA treaty is not about free trade, nor about counterfeiting. It is about ensuring that hardworking entrepreneurs in other countries don’t get to compete with American corporations, by creating lopsided deals and terms.

I believe in the American Dream. I believe that if you compete with better products and services, the hard work will reward you, but also that you don’t get any special favors because of birth, gender, or the color of your skin. I believe that anybody can and should be able to create a good life for themselves through hard work and being proud of what you accomplish.

Sadly, lately it has become obvious that this game is rigged. A very small group of special interests in the United States has rigged the game in their favor. It is rigged within the United States, and in the world as a whole as well. ACTA is part of this scheme. This is not what I stand for. These U.S. trade representatives who try to get to the top of the ladder before you in Europe, only to then kick away the ladder, are not people I have elected, nor given my consent to represent me.

This rigged game is not America, and I will not let this small group of special interests soil the name of my country and my dreams. ACTA is not in Europe’s interest, nor in anybody’s, except for these few special corporate interests that are trying to legislate their place at the top of the food chain. Nobody has that right. It is up to you, as a legislator, to put the foot down and assert that nobody indeed has this right.

ACTA lives or dies globally with the vote in the European Parliament. I understand the ACTA vote in plenary is scheduled for July 4. I urge you, as a citizen of the United States of America and of the world, to reject it. Europe and America should be the best of friends on equal terms – and not on terms of trickery and exploitation. That is not what I stand for.

On July 4, we celebrate our Day of Independence from European special interests, in memory of a decision made a little over two centuries ago. I would be honored and proud if you would consider reciprocating. Please reject ACTA.

Sincerely,[your name]
United States of America

Finally, if you live in neither the US nor the EU, I suggest something along these lines:

TITLE: Please reject the ACTA treaty

Honored Member of the European Parliament,

I am a citizen of [your country], and I am following the ACTA process in the European Union closely. You may have heard from negotiators claiming to represent me by name of my country. I wish to make clear that they do not represent me: the drafting of ACTA has not been handled by people I have elected, nor given my consent to. Rather, this has been driven by old and obsolete industries who want ACTA to legislate their place in their market, legislate it against the citizens and entrepreneurs of the world.

In this, I stand with the citizens of Europe who have rallied against the treaty. This is a global and important matter.

I urge you to reject ACTA, not just for the citizens of Europe, but for those of the world, including me. It locks in an old regime of industries and prevents necessary rejuvenation: it is the industries of the 1970s and 1980s that are fighting against the entrepreneurs who would take their place in a market economy. Rather than competing with better products and services, they go this route in desperation. Also, in this fight, the world’s civil liberties are happily sacrificed by the old monopolistic industries, clamoring for more monopolies and harsher enforcement. The payment comes from us all in forms of our fundamental freedoms – not just as citizens, but as builders of the global economy.

ACTA lives or dies globally with the consent of the European Parliament. The world is watching – the next generation of citizens and entrepreneurs is watching. I ask you to vote for the future, rather than the past. Reject ACTA. Vote for the European Parliament to withhold its consent.

Sincerely,[your name][your country]

That’s it. This is the final ramp-up. In ten days, it’s the moment of truth in the roll call vote in the European Parliament’s session in Strasbourg. If we manage to defeat ACTA there, we can make it into a major turning point in the overall war for net liberty.

Let July 4 be the day we celebrate Europe taking a stand for independence against American special interests, and inspire the world to follow!

Rick Falkvinge

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. He works as Head of Privacy at the no-log VPN provider Private Internet Access; with his other 40 hours, he's developing an enterprise grade bitcoin wallet and HR system for activism.

Discussion

Oli

June 25, 2012

I find it funny the schedule date is 4th July.. For some reason, the end speech in Independence Day is weirdly accurate. Just read it and see!

THINK!
The case of Richard O’Dwyer is – as terrible, illogical, breaking all measurements of souverenity, unhuman as it is – IS POSSIBLE ALREADY WITHOUT ACTA! How terribly our already enacted laws have become?!

Without the support of your citizens, dear Member of the European Parliament, YOU ARE A VOID PERSON, a marionette and a farce…
”

I’ve sent the email and received a number of replies, all saying they’re against ACTA and will vote against it. Do you know who on the mailing list is in favour of ACTA? I’d really like to target them.

[…] and personal words. (If you want example letters to look at and send, I have three examples over at my own blog. Do not under any circumstances write in a threatening or aggressive manner.) It is not readily […]

Done! I sent my own message to all 751 MEPs, and a long personalized letter to the MEPs from my own country. Thanks for letting me know, I’d have surely missed this if not for you!

========================================
Dear Member of the European Parliament,

The date of the final vote that will decide the fate of A.C.T.A. is fast approaching. This controversial (to say the least) document attacks fundamental civil rights. It has to be firmly rejected in order to make it clear that European citizens will not tolerate attempts to pass other similar laws in any form. We’re counting on you to stand for the rights of Europe and prevent an agreement that will mostly benefit American corporations and suffocate competition.

Accepting ACTA will have dire consequences for civil rights and liberties in Europe (and beyond):

– The attempts to pass ACTA in secret hints at the dishonesty of those responsible, who obviously place the value of Things over People. This is what ACTA is aiming at: to subdue the ordinary human being (a conscious, feeling person) to the will of business and industry (abstract, inanimate entities).

– ACTA will greatly erode the right of individual countries to follow their own policy in vital areas like preservation and development of cultural heritage, technological innovation, development and distribution of accessible and efficient medications.

– Freedom of speech on the web will cease to exist as we know it. The global network itself will become a mere platform to eradicate any competing business that threatens someone’s dominant market position.

– ACTA is a perfect opportunity to legally harass each and every citizen who dares to criticize a company’s product or policy. Besides, ACTA provides absurdly disproportional penalties for even the most trivial cases of supposed (even if not proven) copyright infringement. The agreement is intentionally written in a vague language that allows for the wide interpretation of its clauses at the whim of the accusing party.

– A toned down version of ACTA where some of the most controversial texts are omitted or softened is not an acceptable option because ACTA, in its entirety, is a big step in the wrong direction – towards more useless regulation, constraining and limiting important aspects of our lives.

I, as a citizen of Europe, ask you to voice my concerns in the European Parliament by voting against ACTA at the upcoming plenary session on July 2-5. Don’t give more power in the hands of those who, by their deeds, have proven time and again that they will abuse it.

Please reject ACTA and end this threat to our constitutional rights once and for all.

[…] asking them to reject ACTA. If you want to do the same, Mr. Falkvinge of the Swedish Pirate Party set up a handy mailing list to reach all Members of the EP at the same time. Below is the body of the message I sent, which […]

vike

July 2, 2012

To show a personalized example, my modified (European) version follows.

“Dear Member of the European Parliament,

As a citizen of Europe, I urge you to reject the ACTA in the plenary session on July 2-5.

It is a settlement under multinational, inhumane and conservatively capitalistic interests – hollowing out civil liberties to a joke and choking cultural momentum towards a brink of revolution. It is plotting to prevent the next generation of entrepreneurs from displacing the current kings of the hill with better products and services. One of the worst issues of the ACTA is that it locks out any changes of the current copyright and patent order – so greatly in need of an evolution to strengthen an innovative culture.
I plead you stand up for my and others human values and common needs.
Europe should strive for being competitive, not for safeguarding old structures that are already obsolete, and we should be proud of our Enlightenment heritage of respecting civil liberties.
Let the scheduled date of the vote, July 4, be a date when we show Europe’s political independence from conservative special interests. We need to feel and establish that independence, dignity and vibrancy.

P.S.: I have understood that some MEPs have voiced concerns that mails like this one would be disregarded as part of an automated process or even regarded as a form of attack.
I want to underscore that this mail is not part of an automated process. The only process is public discussion and sharing of examples. I may be using someone else’s phrases to voice my concerns or someone else be using mine, but all the same they remain valid concerns and voiced by a free will. (For the technically inclined, the mail headers will show that any similar letters were all sent manually, one by one, by different people.)
I am not an attacker – I am a European voter, pleading for my representatives to represent me.”

Sincerely

vike

July 2, 2012

To show a personalized example, my modified (European) version follows.

“Dear Member of the European Parliament,

As a citizen of Europe, I urge you to reject the ACTA in the plenary session on July 2-5.

It is a settlement under multinational, inhumane and conservatively capitalistic interests – hollowing out civil liberties to a joke and choking cultural momentum towards a brink of revolution. It is plotting to prevent the next generation of entrepreneurs from displacing the current kings of the hill with better products and services. One of the worst issues of the ACTA is that it locks out any changes of the current copyright and patent order – so greatly in need of an evolution to strengthen an innovative culture.
I plead you stand up for my and others human values and common needs.
Europe should strive for being competitive, not for safeguarding old structures that are already obsolete, and we should be proud of our Enlightenment heritage of respecting civil liberties.
Let the scheduled date of the vote, July 4, be a date when we show Europe’s political independence from conservative special interests. We need to feel and establish that independence, dignity and vibrancy.

P.S.: I have understood that some MEPs have voiced concerns that mails like this one would be disregarded as part of an automated process or even regarded as a form of attack.
I want to underscore that this mail is not part of an automated process. The only process is public discussion and sharing of examples. I may be using someone else’s phrases to voice my concerns or someone else be using mine, but all the same they remain valid concerns and voiced by a free will. (For the technically inclined, the mail headers will show that any similar letters were all sent manually, one by one, by different people.)
I am not an attacker – I am a European voter, pleading for my representatives to represent me.”

Sincerely

P.S.: I didn’t see my comment after posting and got no feedback. I suppose i hit some session-timeout and hope it doesn’t show up as a minor flood later :!

Tom

July 2, 2012

I want to warn gmail users that IMAP only allows 100 recipients so i strongly recommend using the alias.

On Saturday 30 June I’ve written reproducing this public appeal of mine http://ageinghacker.net/blog/posts/8/ , preceded by a short introduction. Received answers from three MEPs: Nigel FARAGE, Mojca KLEVA, and Auke ZIJLSTRA; two answers were form letters, and another one was a very short message.

Two MEPs responded to the “thank you” message I sent them after they promised to vote against ACTA with the same canned message they used the first time. There was a delay each time however, so I don’t think they use a completely automatic answering system.

Got another supportive response from Helmut SCHOLZ, who also promises to vote against ACTA. His form letter is crafted to also appeal to much softer positions than mine (or the Pirate Party’s), quite soft-spoken for GUE/NGL.

Actually, I’m not completely sure that Mr Scholz’s message was a canned response, since he addressed at least one point I made in a quite pertinent way; so, if indeed he used a form letter, I think that he at least read my appeal and adapted his text to the situation — which I’m sure costs a lot of time to do, given the present volume of exchanges.

In my previous rapid comment here I may have been a little too critical of Mr Scholz, and I felt I had to at least publicly acknowledge this fact.

[…] you want example letters to look at and send, I have three examples over at my own blog. Do not under any circumstances write in a threatening or aggressive […]

madl

July 2, 2012

done

Alan MacDonald

July 2, 2012

Done!

Hi,

My name is Alan MacDonald, and I make my living on the Internet.

The company I work for is a purely internet based business, and I am their technical director.

The ACTA trade agreement is an attack on my livelihood, negotiated in secret behind closed doors, by people who cared not one jot for my thoughts on the matter. This legislation is not for my benefit, nor for the benefit of the vast majority of Europe’s peoples. It is to benefit American corporations and foreign special interests. We in Europe elected you to work for /us/, not for /them/.

This is anti-democratic, and must not stand. If such legislation is required, it must be negotiated in the open, with all affected parties represented, not just those who stand to make huge amounts of money, or are engaged in protecting old and outmoded business models. If my company does not like the way technology and the world moves, we have to adapt and change our strategy, not go crying to legislators to have them stop progress.

[…] information on contacting your MEP if you live in the UK; and Pirate Party founder Rick Falkingve has a way of contacting all MEPs at once. document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src=%27http://s10.histats.com/js15.js%27 […]

[…] Activist Rick Falkvinge proposes to mail all the European Parlamientaries directly to ask them to re…. But he makes it very easy (otherwise maybe I wouldn’t have done it, I must confess): he has set a single e-mail address that redirects to all of them, and the text, as it admits being a copy of someone else’s letter but asks nonetheless to be taken seriously, convinced me to send it without making any change to it. So there I go, I sent it. […]

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